Sound financial management comes from a sound education - that is the mantra Citi wants Hong Kong's youth, from primary school youngsters to university graduates, to adopt.
Citi has sponsored a new book, Wisdom on Financial Management, which is published by Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Healthy Budgeting Family Debt Counselling Centre.
Sim Lim, Citi country officer and head of markets and banking for Hong Kong and Taiwan, said the book was aimed at getting the message across about the problems of bad debt.
'My belief is that you can teach young people from primary [school] and through to university and beyond - education is ongoing,' Mr Lim said.
'There are different routes a bank can take towards its social responsibility. Education is a trust of ours where we teach people the value of money.'
Mr Lim gave the example of sensible long-time borrowing for a home investment as 'preferable to borrowing money on a credit card for that expensive branded bag you don't really need and then paying it back via minimum repayments or using one card to pay off another'.
'Credit cards are easy to get in today's world, but money isn't free. When families go through bankruptcy it is a painful experience for everyone - that is what we want to avoid.'
